Cotton is a widely used textile fiber. For example, cotton textiles are used for clothing, home furnishings, blanket fills, toiletry products, industrial garments, etc. The expansive utility of cotton textile products is attributed to the relative ease of cotton production compared to other fibers and their appealing properties. As clothing, cotton fabrics are comfortable to wear because they are soft and breathable. Furthermore, cotton fibers are highly absorptive and possess good wicking properties, thereby allowing the use of the fibers in absorbent articles.
Although cotton is one of the most popular textile fibers used, it has many disadvantages. For example, cotton fabrics become worn out readily after several cycles of laundering. This is because, cotton fibers break or pill due to mechanical agitation during wash and form a lint on the surface of the fabric. In another example, cotton fibers tend to shrink significantly compared to synthetic fibers, even after several cycles of laundry. The shrinkage of cotton textile products, in particular clothing, poses a dilemma for consumers, because the consumers can not readily determine how much their newly purchased cotton clothing will shrink and if the clothing will fit on them to their satisfaction after a few cycles of wash. In yet another example, cotton fabrics tend to wrinkle easily, and require a great deal of care to maintain their shape.
In order to overcome these disadvantages, manufacturers often pre-treat cotton fibers and fabrics. For example, to control lint formation, cotton seeds are delinted prior to a brush delinter, or cotton fabrics are treated with a cellulase solution to remove lint precursors. To reduce wrinkle formation, manufacturers treat cotton fabrics with crosslinking agents, such as formaldehyde. However, these additional processes to treat cotton fibers or fabrics add cost to the manufacture of cotton textile products. Furthermore, chemicals added during the manufacture of cotton fabrics and fibers tend to wash out during laundering and lose their effect over time.
Thus, there is a need to improve the quality of cotton textile products. It would be desirable to avoid using any additives in improving the quality of cotton textile products, because they lose their effect over time, especially after repetitive laundering. Chemical additives may also be toxic to human body. It would also be desirable to reduce any additional processing steps so that the manufacture of cotton textile products will be cost effective. One way to resolve these problems is by improving the quality of cotton fibers themselves, so that the need for additional processing steps is eliminated. Thus, there is a need to improve the cotton fiber characteristics, such as fiber strength, fiber length and fineness.